


Scenario 11

by rideswraptors



Series: Kastle Scenarios [11]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, see first part for warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 21:22:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16227575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rideswraptors/pseuds/rideswraptors
Summary: Karen doesn’t ask him to give up the Punisher. She asks him for his family.





	Scenario 11

When Homeland releases him and his slate is wiped clean, the first thing he does is go to the Liebermans. To check in, to make it up to them, he’s not sure, but it’s all he can think to do. When his head is on straight and he has a new place for him and Max to live, a job secured, and a bed to sleep on, he goes to her. 

 

Headed right for her, actually, and without hesitation. He supposes it’s what Madani expected of him, but certainly not Karen. Nope, Karen Page is shocked beyond reason to see him. Confused, concerned, damaged but elated that he’s okay (he’s not had someone happy to see him looking well for a very long time). 

 

Frank doesn’t even think about it when he kisses her. 

 

It’s a natural progression. It’s what he’s been moving toward. His war is done, and there is nothing but his own self standing between them. And Frank’s never let himself stand in the way of something that needed doing. He’d proven that often enough. 

 

Karen kisses him back, happy and hungry for him. 

 

But she has conditions. She doesn’t ask him to stop Punishing, to stop killing. She doesn’t demand that he become some perfect boyfriend who fits into her life. She doesn’t force him to associate with the baby army of superheroes she’s been collecting in his absence. No, Karen Page doesn’t ask for anything beyond what’s reasonable. Instead, she asks for the unthinkable. 

 

She asks for his family.

 

“If you stay,” she told him firmly, “then you have to tell me one story about them every single day. I don’t care how long. I don’t care if it’s good or bad. But you’re telling me.” 

 

Truthfully, no one had ever cared about his family. Not the way Karen did. No one ever asked about them, forced him to think about his memories of them. People rarely even took them into consideration when reviewing his crimes. But Karen did. And Frank could hardly claim it was an outrageous request. He did have a little trouble, however, deciding what to tell her. 

 

It started out with the big things he remembered. Personality traits, quirks, holidays, birthdays. The big things, you know? That’s usually what people wanted to hear about. But with every day that passed, the memory became increasingly mundane. More common. More  _ comfortable _ . 

 

Maria hated cheese sauce. Frankie was really good a hula hooping and Lisa hated it. Lisa liked to draw clouds. Maria liked black jelly beans. Lisa never matched her socks. Frankie put peanut butter on his toast. Maria sang Journey whenever she cleaned and Lisa had just started doing the same. Frankie’s little friends were assholes. 

 

The list went on and on until one day, his stories were just cursory comments dropped into casual conversations. It stopped hurting to think about them. It stopped hurting to say their names. Karen smiled brilliantly whenever he told her something new, or would laugh and say he’d told her that ten times already. One day, he came home from work to find her listening to Journey while writing, and she’d shrugged.

 

“I was thinking about the girls today.” 

 

Frank had kissed her and taken her to bed, and then he told her how much he loved her. Though, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to put into words what she meant to him. Not everyone viewed life the way Karen did, and a lesser woman would never have been able to tame the Punisher in any sense. 

 

But if you asked Karen? There was nothing to tame in the first place.

 


End file.
